


Imaginary Friend

by Alternative



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreams vs. Reality, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Making Friends, Romance, Supernatural Elements, kind of., soul connection thing, their official art is so homo lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 06:13:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4049254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alternative/pseuds/Alternative
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Inaho and Yuki survive a fatal car crash which leads to several scenarios, and it most certainly does not help that ever since the car crash, Inaho finds a blond haired boy frequently visiting his dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Zero

**Author's Note:**

> characters can be ooc, but i'll try to make them in character  
> watch me burn while i write this
> 
> Inaho = 8  
> Yuki = 14

"Yuki! Inaho!" A middle aged woman with silky, raven black hair called out to her children, rust brown eyes twinkling at the sight of her children playing in their well grown garden, "Quickly, we have to go before the show starts!" The mother cried as she heard her husband start up the car behind her. They didn't want to miss the show hosted by Kaizuka Yuki's school, not after Yuki worked so hard to earn the tickets.

Yuki, the young teenage girl with shoulder-length hair, similar to her mother's, ran towards where her parents were, waiting beside a dark colored vehicle. She beamed at the sight of her mother and father, excitement bubbling up in her stomach as she opened the back door and shuffled in before noticing that her younger brother was still looking at the caterpillar which was climbing its way up a tree. "Inaho, come on!" She hollered from the car before being shushed down by her father. She apologized briefly, her father following up with a small smile and a little ' _it's okay'_ to reassure her.

The small boy came tumbling in, eyes wide with a small smile on his face as his mother cooed in adoration at his movements. "I'm here," he replies sternly as he shuts the car door behind him, fumbling with the seat belt and swinging his legs which were long inches away from the floor. He was a small child, and Yuki couldn't help but giggle at this. Inaho and Yuki always loved family gatherings, whether it was inside or outside of the house.

After everyone had settled in the car, the father began to drive away, and towards Yuki's school. It was a fine Saturday afternoon, sun shining, clouds nowhere in sight. It wasn't too hot, nor too cold, just fine. A perfect day for the perfect families to enjoy.

Five minutes into the car ride, out of sheer curiosity, the young brunet asks: "What are we watching today?" His eyes seemingly calculating as they peered back into the eyes of his sister, "Has it to do with Science? Psychology, even?"

"You talk big," Yuki mused, brushing down her dark blue dress before returning a smile to him, "none of that. We're watching _Romeo and Juliet_. It's a famous play, have you ever heard of it?"

Inaho shakes his head, and for a second, he pauses. He thinks about it, then he nods twice as quickly than his head motions before. "It's a play created by _Shakespeare_ , a classic romance-tragedy story between two..." His lips thin as he thinks of the words he was looking for. Hearing his mom ask their father speed up slightly because they only had a few minutes left before it would start, he continued slowly, "Star... crossed lovers?" His sentence came out more like a question near the end.

His sister smiled slightly, confirming his words, "Yes," she sighed dreamily, "a sad, yet excellent story between two lovers!" Yuki smiled, closing her eyes as she relaxed into her seat, "It's an original."

Inaho stays silent for a moment before striking up with resolve, "Yuki-nee, did you know that ' _star-crossed lovers_ ' is a long word to reference to all lovers who are doomed to meet a bad ending?"

Yuki laughs at his small mistake, "It's not a 'long word', Inaho. It's a term, and yes, I do know that." She would expect Inaho to know these things, of course. Especially when he's always had a brain more developed than children his age, and slightly older, but in the end, a child is a child.

"Honey," Inaho hears their mother shriek slightly behind Yuki's abrupt laughter, "that's an amber light!"

Inaho quickly turns to look at the light as the car moved to turn right, which was now a blaring, bright red. He stiffens as he registers the fact that their speed was over the limit, and that they are still going. He sees a car zooming closer to theirs, going a quick speed comparable to theirs a few seconds ago. The second it takes Inaho to look at Yuki, he hears the sounds of tires screeching against asphalt, followed by the sounds of screaming.

Then there was nothing, accompanied by the feeling of confusion and the gut churning feeling called fear.

It was a fine Saturday afternoon, sun shining, clouds nowhere in sight. It wasn't too hot, nor too cold, just fine. The news forecast earlier in the morning that the Geminid meteor shower would be clear in their view at night, around nine and ten. A sight to behold, a sight which many loved and floundered about. A perfect day.  
_A perfect day._

* * *

_Breaking News:_

_Three dead and five hospitalized in a two-vehicle crash._

_An intersection has been shut down after a fatal car accident which occurred at 3:45 in the afternoon. Police, after interviewing witnesses say that both cars were driving at high speeds when the side collision happened. The identities of both families have not been certified yet, and we are currently awaiting for new information to arrive._

* * *

_Inaho opens his eyes. He looks at the endless blue sky above him and blinks, watching the cloud formations shift south as time passes. He tries to recall where he is, why he is here and past events which could have lead to this. He feels a strong pain on his left arm, and he manages to stifle the pain when he clenches his jaw shut, allowing his right arm to cradle his left._

_He sat up, eying the white floor beneath him as he he let his fingers roam around his left arm, feeling and pressing, occasionally grimacing when he felt a surge of electric shock flood through his veins, shooting up to his brain, rendering pain._

"Hey," _an unknown voice called out from the distance, causing the brunet to snap out of his reverie._

_Rust brown eyes glanced up to meet teal eyes._

_The childlike figure in the distance waved at him curiously._

_Inaho blinked, and he raised his right arm -_

* * *

The feeling of someone holding his right arm up was what startled Inaho awake. He opened his eyes weakly, slowly gaining up to the feeling of being exhausted - _although he believes he hasn't done anything to exhaust his body -_ listening to a rhythmic beeping noise sound from beside him. The noise was not at all familiar, nor were the bright lights shining down on his face. He tried moving, feeling plastic run along the sides of his face, but his left arm was caught on something. Inaho's pupils constricted, taking in the light and allowing his brain to register his surroundings as he breathed in and out. However, he knew something was terribly wrong when he felt his own breath on his face - _as if something were compressing his breaths -_ and he blinked. There was a sharp smell, however. A smell sharp enough to cut through whatever he had around his nose and mouth. It was a clean, yet unsettling smell.

There was a slight poke on his arm, and he shifted his eyes to the side, watching a woman wearing deep blue, uniform clothing press a needle into his vein. The awkward feeling of liquid dripping into his veins occupied is mind for a bit, the woman placing a paper-weight item on the injection as he spaced out, and then he heard a noise which he slowly, with his brain being fifty steps behind, registered to be a female's - _the woman who injected him -_ voice saying something along the lines of someone being awake. After her call, a rush of people clad in blue attire appeared along with what looked like a doctor, appearing one-by-one like a troupe.

And that's when his brain caught up to his eyes and senses.

Pain on his left arm, wrapped up and put into a cast, respirator mask on his face to help him breathe, band-aid fresh on his arm, the strong, sharp smell of sanitized floors, walls, everything -

_he was in the hospital._

The sudden intake of information was almost enough to make Inaho black out again, cutting through him like a newly sharpened knife, but he willed himself not to. Instead, he stared back at the doctor.

* * *

' _It is miraculous that you and your sister survived!'_

It was true, although Inaho seemed to deal with little damage compared to Yuki, who had broken her left arm and leg upon impact, followed by numerous glass cuts on her body, and her face, however the ones on her face seemed to be little compared to the ones on her body.

When the doctors Inaho visited Yuki's room upon her waking up after six hours of being out, she cried. Tears of happiness, tears of sadness alike. Or rather, she was already holding in her tears, on the edge of crying, but it just so happened that seeing her little brother waddle in was the last straw which led to her waterworks.

"I thought you'd _died_ ," she sobbed as she reached out to hold onto his right hand with her own. A comforting gesture, or so Inaho's mind acknowledged. Her touch on his hand, along with the sounds and sight of her crying her heart out made Inaho's heart clench, causing his blood to pump quicker. He felt his face heat up, his eyes stinging slightly with water.

_'It's been a while since I last saw her cry,'_ Inaho thought inwardly as he squeezed Yuki's hand back.

"I'm so happy that at least _you're_ alive, Inaho," Yuki chokes on her sobs as tears continue to flood her vision, raining down her face like waterfalls, and Inaho wants to wipe them, but his mind rejects that thought upon realization on the implications of what she said.

_At least you're alive, Inaho._

In reflex to the sudden coldness which erupted from his heart, he squeezed tightly onto Yuki's hand, to the point where it hurt even _him_ to clutch onto her soft hand. He felt his shoulders slump, his eyes wide as a firm frown melted its way on his pale face. The cogwheels in his brain whistled and turned, shifting, evaluating, then registering. He let out a small, shaky breath, and although his blood was pumping quickly, he felt his blood freeze over.

_It is miraculous that you and your sister survived!_

Realization hit a home run on him, and it hurt.

The moment Yuki managed to catch a clear glimpse of his face through her tears, her eyes widened, and the urge to squeeze back on his hand became stronger.

He - _has never looked so lost, torn and helpless -_ didn't know.

* * *

_That night, Inaho dreams about watching the Geminid meteor showers on a hill, by a tree with a caterpillar crawling up on it, together with a boy he remembers catching a glimpse of somewhere.  
_

_They wear similar clothes, light blue, like the powdery summer sky._

_Inaho watches the meteor shower with wonder, watching as lights streak, and streak again across the sky before disappearing into the endless beyond. It gives him a safe sensation, watching the beautiful lights fall towards a destination unknown.  
_

_The boy who's blond hair is light enough to call silver does not say anything, he does not question the others presence, and nor does Inaho. They do not know each others names, however they feel comfortable with how things are. Occasionally, they would shift in their seats, change positions, and offer side glances to one another, brown eyes finding a brilliant, sky-like teal, and vice-versa, but that was all. All they did was watch the night sky twinkle and dance with starlight, even after the meteor showers ended. Inaho enjoys this solid, tranquil aura around them, and he makes the accidental mistake to think to himself that he would love to see this sight with his family one day._

* * *

He no longer has a complete family, or so Inaho tells himself when he wakes up from his dream, the beeping beside his ear annoying him.

It was just him and Yuki now.

* * *

_"How was the meteor shower?"_

_"Perfect! Many people are claiming that it was the most beautiful and clear-to-the-eye meteor shower in years. They're calling yesterday's shower 'Heaven's Fall'."_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i said id update next week or something but here

A week passes, and Inaho still isn't quite sure what to do while staying there. It wasn't like he had too many problems physically, he only suffered a broken arm, a few scratches, nothing all too bad compared to other people who stayed at the hospital. An old man with memory loss approached him the other day, calling him his ' _son',_ and Inaho couldn't help but flinch and grimace at the word, 'son'. He wasn't used to it yet, not having parents. In fact, he wasn't used to anything yet.

Inaho still feels quite disoriented, out played by his shock, causing a rippling effect to travel throughout his emotional functions. He wasn't quite sure when he should smile or laugh anymore, and he wasn't quite sure what to laugh at, or when it was appropriate anymore. Slowly, yet quickly, his state was tearing apart. Even in his dreams, he would see his parents and Yuki talking like everything was fine, and then he'd find himself waking up with a tear or two in his eyes. He found himself longing for his parent's voices to call out his name once again.

Oh, how he missed waking up to a kiss on his cheek followed by a friendly greeting, and then falling asleep after a long day with a kiss on his forehead. His daily schedule of waking up for school - _did they even know where he was? -_ and leaving after eating breakfast and saying bye to his family was no longer functional. In fact, most of the things he did before the crash were no longer functional.

His routine now was to get up, wait for breakfast while looking outside, watching the birds fly with a passive look pressed firmly onto his face, small smile somewhat unable to let itself become known on his lips. After breakfast, he would walk around, preferably to see his sister, Yuki, when he could. If not, Inaho would hang out around the office, idly sitting beside patients who had business with the office workers. He would listen to them converse, overhear rumors, gossip, learn thing about people, and all whilst decoding their professional terms, taking them apart piece by piece. This routine had become clockwork to him, eventually.

Inaho had overheard about the 'tragic double-vehicle crash', which he assumed he had taken part of unwillingly. According to nurses, none of the families present would press charges. It wasn't like _his family could,_ anyway. Besides, it _was_ partially their fault. However, getting this fact into his head was hard. Behind his mind, he knew that there was a crying eight year old child, a crying eight year old child which he rejected and accepted to be him. That child was no longer him, because that child and himself were _very_ different. That child had a family, _he_ didn't.

That child had a place to call home.

 _He_ _didn't._ Not anymore, anyway.

Inaho, once again, upon walking around the hospital's long corridors, surveying people, found himself sitting down on a not-so-comfortable, stiff chair. Out of the small row of seats, he'd decided to sit on the seat at the very end, closest to the printer room. He sniffed the stale air and cringed at the smell of beyond hygienic hallways. It was hard to stay here for a full week with nothing to do, nothing to talk about, no one to speak to - _save for Yuki and his assigned doctor_. Then again, he _didn't_ want to speak to anybody. He never found himself quite in the mood to be talkative unless he was around Yuki. He closes his eyes and thinks deeply, trying to think of things to feed his bored-out brain.

It wasn't until someone took the seat beside him that he reopened his eyes.

His motions of discomfort didn't show, and he was glad to realize that the girl who sat beside him did not look at him. Rather, she looked straight ahead, looking somewhat concerned. Inaho took note of her sunlight blond long hair before taking in her attire. Light powder blue children's clothing, just like him.

She seemed to notice his gaze, and when she turned to look at him, he tried to look away. However, it seemed that she would not simply let this go. The blond haired girl offers him a small, gentle smile, her emerald fields for eyes staring intently into his brown ones, and for a moment, he feels defeated. This girl was in all forms in a brighter mood than him, and he couldn't help but envy her slightly for it.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes, much to his surprise, "was someone sitting here?" Her voice is surprisingly soft and soothing against his ears.

"No," he answers slowly, and simply.

"Oh," she lets out a relaxed breath of air, as if relieved to find out about this, "that's good, I was worried that I'd taken someone's place without fair warning."

Inaho raises an eyebrow up at her use of words. Quite big, intelligent words, and she doesn't look all that older from him - _maybe two years at most, older than him_. He also takes note that the air and upbringing she carries with her has a high value. An air comparable to those of high aristocrats, but in this day and age, surely she wouldn't be one of them.

Suddenly, the girl introduces himself to him with a smile, holding her hand out for him to shake, "I'm Asseylum, it's nice to meet you, um..." She stops for a moment, giving him time to respond.

Inaho blinks, acutely aware of her hovering hand at eye level. ' _She's taller than me,'_ he surmises with a small frown as he brings his right hand up to shake hers, "Inaho," he replies, not giving out his full name with purpose. She didn't sell hers, he wouldn't sell his.

Asseylum seems greatly pleased by this exchange of names, her eyes twinkling at the sight of him. She then asks him how his day was going, droning on about things he didn't find all too interesting, but decided to file away in his head anyway for helpful use later on. And then, she brings an interesting key up after he tells her that he is here to stay for his arm's and sister's treatment. He had not gone through anything too hard, except for a slight facial trauma. The neuroimages he asked the doctors to show him apparently didn't show anything, either, which once again, they found slightly surprising and out-of-the-ordinary. He doesn't tell her why they are there in hopes she wouldn't pry, and she doesn't.

She lets on, "I have a sister too, and like you, I'm here for her. You see," Asseylum bites her lower lip, her eyebrows furrowing upwards as she frowns, "recently, due to a-, um, small accident, she's lost the ability to control her legs," she slowly explains to Inaho, unsure if he would understand since he looked so young, "and so, they're here to..." Asseylum trails off, the words which were to follow up on her sentence dying in her mouth, leaving her throat dry. She stops speaking, and her mind wanders elsewhere for a moment, "And then there's also..." she pauses for a moment, looking at her silver chained necklace, the charm hidden underneath her shirt. Then she looks to her bandaged up arms and hands, emerald eyes landing on her hand. "And my mother..." The blond trails off yet again, her voice breaking, her face slowly flushing red.

' _Ah,'_ Inaho exclaims inwardly as she watches the girl sob into her arm, wetting the seemingly fresh bandages wrapped around her right arm, ' _she's crying,'_ he states the obvious inwardly. It takes him awhile to realize that he should probably do something about it, but the time it takes him to realize, she's wiping away her tears with a small, forlorn smile.

"Sorry," she apologizes, "sorry," she repeats, except this time, it sounds like it's not towards him, and more to herself. 

* * *

_In Inaho's dream, he feels the usual set of burning eyes on his back, and when he turns around he sees no one there. There is, however, one of the occasional, suspenseful, rare glimpses of sparkling silver-blond strands. This time, Inaho decides that he should chase it._

_And so he does._

_The moment Inaho rounds the corner where the strands disappeared into, he finds himself gazing up at a familiar hill with a tree growing on it. He sees a figure far up, and it looks strangely familiar. Maybe it was the girl who sat next to him, earlier. What was her name? Was it -_

"Asseylum?" _Inaho calls out, unsure, until he registers the fact that the figure's hair is short, messy and boyish._

_The figure seems to hear him._

_The boy slowly turns around, vivid turquoise colored eyes boring holes into rust brown._

_Inaho realizes that he has seen this boy before, in his other dream with the Geminids falling from the sky, and he immediately narrows his eyes at the sight of him._

_And the light blond haired boy does the same._

"You again!" _The boy hisses, as if angered at his presence,_ _his eyebrows furrowed as he comes barreling down the hill towards Inaho, and Inaho is momentarily frozen in his spot. The blond haired boy poises a fist up in the air, and just as he approaches the brunet, he swings, his mouth wide open as he screams._

"Don't - !"

* * *

"- touch his cheek like that!"

Inaho wakes up, startled by the feeling of weight on his cheek.

He opens his eyes to find two nurses present in his room, one touching his cheek with her index finger.

The nurse touching his cheek turns red and giggles, "Did I wake you up? I'm sorry," she laughs.

"I told you not to do that, idiot!"

As the two nurses begin to have a light argument, Inaho brings his right hand up to his cheek, and he presses on it tenderly.

"It hurts," he comments as he remembers the boy's fist in his dreams colliding with his cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have some introduction and foreshadowing

**Author's Note:**

> idk if any of you follow my writing style for this story but.  
> inaho is still 8, he is a fascinating cardboard box in progress. I will skip times every now and then if I find them unimportant to the story.


End file.
